1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image display device and an image display method capable of providing a suitable image quality corresponding to content.
2. Related Art
In an image display device such as a television, a viewer (or watcher) can adjust image quality in accordance with his liking. Generally, the viewer adjusts the image quality by converting the modes which are previously prepared by a manufacturer as preset functions, or by changing the set values of adjustment items such as contrast and three attributes of color space, namely brightness, color tone, and vividness.
In recent years, with the increase of content and information, various content has been broadcasted through the television. With the diversification of lifestyles, audio-visual environment of the content has also been varied. Further, the development of the image display device has made it possible to view one-segment broadcasting with a cellular phone, and to display images as a slide show by inserting a memory card storing still images shot by a user into a “digital picture frame” or the like, which begins to become popular.
There is a suitable image quality corresponding to the content and audio-visual environment. However, the viewer does not frequently change the image quality since it is troublesome to adjust the image quality every time the content changes.
It is disclosed in JP-A 10-108086 (Kokai) that signal processing for improving the image quality is performed by automatically detecting a content genre and audio-visual environment to select the optimum mode for the detected environment from a plurality kinds of image processing modes.
JP-A 2005-94072 (Kokai) discloses a means to reflect the liking of the viewer, by which the viewer can set a mode by himself. The viewer relates a keyword to adjustment parameters for adjusting image quality or sound quality to store and register the relationship as a mode. When content information and the keyword accord with each other, the image quality or the sound quality is adjusted by using the registered adjustment parameters.
In a device disclosed in JP-A 10-108086 (Kokai), the liking of the viewer is not sufficiently reflected since the number of adjustment items settable by the viewer is small.
Further, it is difficult for a general viewer to sense how the image is actually changed by changing the set values of the adjustment items. Accordingly, in JP-A 2005-94072 (Kokai), the adjustment of the image quality is difficult for the viewers who do not know the item to be adjusted and the adjustment level to be achieved, in which most viewers do not adjust the adjustment items in the end. Therefore, it is not often that the liking of the viewer is actually reflected.